It's the summer of 1879, and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, is in trouble. Annie's husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns to pay off a debt. Annie Fuller also has a secret. She supplements her income by giving domestic and business advice as Madam Sibyl, one of San Francisco's most exclusive clairvoyants, and one of Madam Sibyl's clients, Matthew Voss, has died. The police believe his death was suicide brought upon by bankruptcy, but Annie believes Voss has been murdered and that his assets have been stolen. Nate Dawson has a problem. As the Voss family lawyer, he would love to believe that Matthew Voss didn't leave his grieving family destitute. But that would mean working with Annie Fuller, a woman who alternatively attracts and infuriates him as she shatters every notion he ever had of proper ladylike behavior. Sparks fly as Anne and Nate pursue the truth about the murder of Matthew Voss in this light-hearted historical mystery set in the foggy gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco.
For over twenty years, M. Louisa Locke was known by students taking U.S. History classes at San Diego Mesa College as Dr. Locke, an enthusiastic and amusing teller of stories about the past. Now retired, she has taken her story telling in a new direction with the publication of Maids of Misfortune: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery. This book was a finalist in the historical fiction category of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and is currently #1 on the historical mystery category in the Kindle Bookstore. Her short story, Dandy Detects, is based on characters from the novel.
For those of you have read Maids of Misfortune, or Dandy Detects, Locke would love to hear from you, and would really appreciate if you could spend a few minutes writing a review on Amazon.com.
Locke is currently living in San Diego with her husband and assorted animals, where she is working on Uneasy Spirits, the next installment of her series of historical mysteries set in Victorian San Francisco. If you are interested in learning more about Victorian San Francisco and the events and places in her books, please join her author facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/mlouisalockeauthor.
Locke has also begun to write about her experiences as a self-published author in her blog, The Front Parlor, http://mlouisalocke.wordpress.com/ and she is a regular contributor to the website on self-publishing, Publetariat.
For more about M. Louisa Locke and her work, see http://mlouisalocke.com/
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